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SPENCER M. CLARK, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

Letters Patent 1V0. 66,461, dated July 9, 1867.

MODE OI NUMBERING COUPONS.

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TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, SPENCER M. CLARK, of Washington, in the county ofWashington, and District of Columbia, have invented a new and improvedMethod of Numbering Coupons, Checks, Bank Notes, and other Tokens; andI-here'by declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same, reference being had to the specimenaccompanying this application. i

It is well known that coupons, bank notes, and other like tokens, aremarked on their face with numbers, which are intended to enable any oneissuing the notes, &c., to identify or recognize them, and to stop thepayment of them in case they should be lost or stolen from thepossession of the rightful proprietor.

The present system of numbering them, however, affords but little realsecurity against the evils it isintended to remedy. The numbers areplaced somewhere on the face of the notes Where they may be seen withoutmuch difiiculty; but they are also printed or stamped so as to occupybut little space on the note, and there is nothing to prevent theaddition of one or more numerals to the number already printed. Forinstance, a thief who abstracts a note or coupon numbered 85, canreadily change it by placing either before or after it one or morenumbersor figures, as for example, 9, thus making the number 859 or 985,at pleasure, and effecting a complete change in the number which issupposed to identify the particular token to which it is attached.

The experience of bankers and others in like business proves beyondquestion that much money has in this way been frequently obtained bypersons not entitled to it, and for some time, but hitherto in vain, aready and eflicient means has been sought to render it impossible tochange or alter the number without making the fraud apparent and easilydiscoverable. It is to remedy these evils that I have devised the methodof numbering, which I desire to have secured t0 me by Letters Patent.

In conformity with my'system, I print the numbers so that in whateverdirection they run, whether par allel to the length of the note, ortransversely thereto, or diagonally, they shall extend from one end orside of the note to the other, and thus leave no room at either endwhere a numeral could be added so as to form part of the series alreadyprinted. In the specimen sheet accompanying this application I haveshown a series of coupons stamped with numbers in accordance with myinvention, and it will be seen that although the numbers printed on thedifferent coupons may vary, yet the arrangement of them, from 1 to100,000 and more, is identical in principle, for in every case theyextend from one end to the other of each coupon, varying in size, ofcourse, according to the number of places of figures, and to thedimensions of the coupon or other token, but so that there shall be nospace left for the addition of other numerals, The identity of thecoupon is thus preserved, and the number can only be altered or changedby its partial or entire erasure, which would be exceedingly diflicult,if not impossible, to successfully accomplish.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is-- The method of numbering coupons, bank notes, andother tokens, substantially as herein set forth and described.

'In testimony whereof I have signed ,my name to this specificationbefore two subscribing witnesses,

" S; M. CLARK. Witnesses:

L. B. ALLYN, Junns GoLAv.

